Vile
Vile has been active in Paradigm City's underworld since she was fifteen years old. Starting her career as a basic thug for hire under the code name Skunk, Vile worked her way up through the ranks until she earned the title of Overlord. Vile truly had to prove herself as a villain worthy of power and respect, and she did it in the most improbable way imaginable: the murder of a ruling Overlord. Origin Cassandra Petersen was always a bad seed. From the time she was able to make her own choices she was getting into trouble by stealing, picking fights with classmates, and showing no respect for authority at all. Seeking a means to focus their daughter's energy in a positive way and instill in her some discipline Cassandra's parents, Richard and Vanessa Petersen, enrolled their daughter in Hung-Gar classes. It was a choice they would spend the rest of their lives regretting. After her initial resistance to learning kung-fu Vanessa suddenly realized that being a master of a Chinese martial art would give her a skyrocketing boost in being a bully. She began to learn eagerly, spending almost all of her time practicing. At first the elder Petersens thought that they had finally managed to tame their daughter and, indeed, it seemed that for a while they had done. Cassandra was so busy learning her new skill that she had no time to steal from her mother's purse, shove the neighbor boy down the stairs, or kick the neighborhood stray dogs. Vanessa really took to her lessons and before three months had passed as recognized as a brown belt. By the end of her first year Vanessa was rewarded with her first grade black belt. Her instructor desired to have her perform in competition and Vanessa readily agreed to do so. At 12 she was proclaimed the champion of Millennium City. At 13 she was recognized as the champion of Paradigm City. As 14 she brought home the trophy for being the California State Hung-Gar Champion. Then at the height of her fame, everything went bad. Shortly after bringing home her trophy Cassandra was arrested for assault after getting into a fight with a classmate and breaking his back. Though her lawyer was able to get the charges reduced to probation Cassandra didn't care a whit and almost immediately began running with the Chromatic Dragons in North Hills. After being arrested several times Cassandra was contacted by a man calling himself The Mastermind. She was invited to join his fledgling super-group called The 4th Quarter. She did so, having nothing better to do. Using the name Skunk, she became a well-known super villain after several clashes with Heroes Unlimited and the Champions of Galaxy View Terrace. When the 4th Quarter fell apart Cassandra decided to become an agent of The Advent. As Skunk, Cassandra moved around quite a bit in The Advent. She was placed with a variety of teams and groups, not because she was troublesome but because she was simply a superb agent. She was unquestionably loyal to Mastermind and she helped transform many of the teams she was placed with to become well-oiled fighting machines. At one point she was assigned to Olympic Industries, and that's where she became even more capable and dangerous. Olympic Industries was ordered by Mastermind to infiltrate the Gex-X Corporation in Millennium City. Gen-X had a long history of producing viable healthcare solutions and technology that was infringing greatly on Olympic Industry and thus cutting into Mastermind's profit margin. Skunk and her best friend Sycophant, along with four other Advent agents, were ordered to break into the building, destroy all of their documentation and destroy Gen-X's medical trial progress. During the mission several superheroes showed up, resulting in a wholesale running battle through the establishment where Cassandra and the other agents were exposed to a variety of chemicals, which imbued each of them with super-powers. The battle also completely destroyed the Gen-X building so Cassandra's mission was, after a fashion, completed satisfactorily. After Cassandra's super-human abilities surfaced and se was able to control them she was assigned to be an assistant to Demonseed, the Overlord of North Hills in Millennium City. She served loyally for several years, never giving a single outward sign of what she had planned. Eventually she was able to manipulate Demonseed into becoming her lover, and that's when she struck. On a quiet evening when the couple had finished making love and were cuddling together Cassandra murdered Demonseed. It was a move that sent a shock-wave through the criminal underworld of Paradigm City. Cassandra immediately took an even more astonishing, and potentially deadly to herself, move by openly contacting Mastermind and demanding that he make her the new Overlord of North Hills. Mastermind was initially furious at the loss of a very good Overlord that he himself had assigned but at the same time he was greatly impressed by Cassandra's action. He considered her record with The Advent, laughed suddenly, and gave Cassandra the position. Cassandra dropped the name Skunk, took on a new code name, and stepped up to sit in the chair that she had secretly been eyeing for years. Behold Vile, Overlord of North Hills. Vile, The Overlord "I hope your life insurance is paid up. But it doesn't really matter. Once I'm done with you the rest of your family is next." Vile certainly deserves her name. She is brutal, merciless, and a killer utterly without a conscience. She will kill a wheelchair bound senior citizen or an adolescent and then sleep like a baby. Though she has all the outward hallmarks of being a psychopath she's not, just a woman whom is the closest thing to true evil that most superheroes will ever have the displeasure of meeting. The chemicals that Vile was exposed to whilst employed by Olympic Industries has imbued her with the power to coat her entire body with three separate chemical types that are exuded through the pores of her skin. The first and deadliest of these chemicals is a corrosive acid so strange it can reduce a foot thick steel door to fragments in seconds. This particular chemical makes her physical strikes exceptionally virile, and also does considerable damage to anyone whom physically strikes her. This acidic excretion makes it impossible for her to be held in conventional methods of restraint. The second chemical that Vile is able to utilize creates a reek so potent that anyone within thirty feet of herself will be overcome with retching and vomiting. The 'stink sweat', as she calls it, was particular apropos when she was calling herself Skunk. Vile is also able to spray this chemical through specialized glands in her wrist. This spray can be directed as a stream, a wide-angle spray, or a billowing green cloud that can fill a fifty foot area. The stink reacts violently with mucous membranes, causing eyes to stream and sinuses to drain extensively. The third and final chemical that Vile is able to excrete is almost purely defensive. It blocks her natural aroma, making it impossible to be tracked by scent. It also bends light away from her, rendering her invisible to normal sight. Her invisibly is quite potent. When her 'vanishing sweat' is activated Vile is also rendered undetectable by infrared detection, ultraviolet detection, and she does not cast a reflection in mirrored surfaces. However, her vanishing sweat does not make her undetectable by radar, sonar, and other specialized means of detection. Vile is not affected by any of her own chemical secretions. Cassandra Petersen is considered the best Hung-Gar stylist in the state of California. She is extremely quick and nubile, attacking aggressively and utilizing a variety of hand strikes including front punches, boxing-like jabs, hammer fists, knife-edged hand strikes, tiger palm strikes, grasping eagle claw strikes, elbow strikes, and shoulder slams. The footwork of the discipline includes tripping leg hooks and foot sweeps, rapid snapping front kicks, crescent and roundhouse kicks, and high kicks that she can employ to strike a foe in the throat or face. She is able to utilize rapid-fire shoulder and hip throws, strikes with her knee, and join locks. She is so proficient in Hung-Gar that she is capable of facing up to five foes and defeating them. Vile is an excellent leader and strategist. She treats her agents and employees with respect, which in turn has earned her their trust and respect as well. Agents Vile employs a contingent of Chromatic Dragons whom tend to do her wetwork in the North Hills district of Millennium City. In addition to the Dragons Vile employs the five women whom with assigned to her for the Gen-X mission and, like her, received superpowers from their exposure to the chemical spill (except one, see Sycophant, below). These ladies, whom jokingly call themselves the Fab Five act as Vile's advisors, enforcers and, if necessary, her bodyguards. 'Sycophant '-- Jennifer Harris has been Vile's best friend since they were children together in Jr. High School. As Sycophant, Jennifer is the leader of the Five and dresses in a bright green leotard, thigh-high boots, gloves to the forearm, and a cape. Sycophant is a genetic mutant whom has the ability to produce a powerful sedative blast from the palms of her hands. This blast makes foes very woozy, confused, and is likely to cause her enemy to fall asleep. Sycophant is not affected by her own spray and, strangely enough, neither is Vile. Vile has taught her Hung-Gar which makes her a potent unarmed combatant. 'Leather '-- Leather is a pyrokinetic, able to shape existing flames into offensive bolts, blasts, waves, and fireballs. Because she can't create flames on her own she wears specialized leather gloves that are equipped with small propane cannisters and a quick flick ignition trigger. Leather has also been taught kung-fu by Vile which serves her well when she runs out of her fuel supply. 'Lace '-- Michelle Conway was a 'gangster girl' that was passed around from Chromatic Dragon to Chromatic dragon. She hated being treated as a piece of meat for use as a sexual release valve. When Michelle gained her super powers she was quick to take revenge and was satisfied. She is a very attractive black woman whom wears a lacy and racy white bodysuit, thigh-high boots, and decorative light blue shouder pads. Lace is able to generate intense cold. While sha can't generate ice or snow she is capable of dropping the ambient room temperature to below zero in a matter of seconds, generate blasts of intense cold, and drop the tempurature around a foe to well below freezing. Lace is not affected by cold-based powers and hostile environments. 'Pleasure -- '''Pleasure is a beautiful Chinese woman with the power to, well to be crass, induce orgasms in others. While this power certainly makes for an interesting party trick it can also be taken to the extremes, overloading a target with such pleasurable sensations that he or she will be rendered incapable of doing anything but, ah, enjoying themselves. With enough time, usually a matter of mere minutes a foe will literally die of intense muscle contractions and dehydration. Pleasure also makes use of a cat-o'-nine-tails and a pair of .45 glocks as backup for her pleasure-inducing power. '''Pain '-- Melissa Dansburg is a woman filled with rage and hate. Nobody outside of the Five and Vile know why, but all of Vile's other agents make it a point to steer clear of her. She is a killer, and though not at all as caalous as Vile she is a killer none-the-less. Pain's exposer to the Gen-X chemicals allows her to elongate her arms out to a maximum of thirty feet. She is exceptionally skilled at using her extended arms like whips. In addition to the severe slashing damage her whipiarms can inflict she can also use them to trip a foe up or wrap around his neck to choke hin to death, Pain often winds both arms with barbed wire or razor wire to help her inflict as much addiional damage as possible.